City passes ethics ordinance

For first time an ethics panel will be created to hear complaints.

Posted: Thursday, April 28, 2005

What happened: The Savannah City Council unanimously passed a city ethics ordinance, which will create a three-member ethics board that has the power to investigate complaints made against city aldermen. The board does not have the power to punish. That is left to the council. Mayor Otis Johnson wanted the ordinance passed Thursday because the city needed it to become eligible as a "Certified City of Ethics" by the Georgia Municipal Association, which will meet in Savannah in June.

The questions: Over the past two weeks, Alderman Jeff Felser questioned whether the council should make appointments to the ethics board, as called for by the ordinance. Wednesday, Judy Jennings, president of the League of Women Voters, said she wanted the city to wait on passing the ordinance until the state Attorney General issued an opinion on whether an independent agency could make the appointments. She had raised the same concerns as

Felser with the Chatham County Commission, where a similar ethics board is being considered.

Both County Attorney Jon Hart and City Attorney James Blackburn cited case law that forbids governmental boards from delegating their appointment authority to a private organization.

In a letter sent Thursday, the Attorney General's office affirmed that position.

What was said:"(A legislative body) cannot delegate the appointive power to a private organization. Such an organization, no matter how responsible, is not in the public domain and is not accountable to the people as our constitution requires. It represents and is accountable to its membership," from the opinion issued by Assistant